Freeze frame

Architectural Review, The, Oct, 1997

Based on the northern Johannesburg suburbia of Rivonia, Velocity Films is one of South Africa's leading film production houses. The company's new headquarters, designed by Jo Noero Architects, accommodate a mixture of offices, film production studios, video libraries and recording rooms. The company was very specific about the architectural character of the new building, seeing it as a work in progress analogous to a film set, which has the capacity to change over time in response to new needs. It also stipulated that the form and detailing should reflect the industrial, transient nature of film production.

Due to cost restraints and town planning requirements, it was decided to reduce dedicated work spaces to a minimum and establish generous common social areas which could be used as relief spaces for the tightly planned offices. Underpinning the entire approach is the notion that film production is a creative process, and that the common spaces would provide the opportunity for people both to collaborate and socialise. Chance encounters can often lead to stimulating ideas.

The wooded site slopes downhill from east to west and the modest two-storey building is positioned on its southern edge. along the north (sunny) side of the building is a continuous terrace which registers as a horizontal datum on the sloping site. The long terrace (a modern version of the traditional African stoep or veranda) is shaded by a group of mature jacaranda trees. The treatment of the elevations is simple, almost Miesian, with a subtle palette of raw materials - galvanised steel, brick, timber and concrete. Reflecting the level of building skills in the Guateng region, the approach to detailing is expressively robust: joints and junctions are exposed, and materials expressed independently of the steel structural frame, but this only adds to the building's crisply honed tectonic presence. The composition is united by a variably pitched roof, inspired by farm sheds and old Rand mining buildings, clad in crinkly galvanised steel panels.

The building is arranged around a two-storey internal street, which operates as a powerful unifying device. The toplit street runs on an east-west axis (at right angles to the street outside), acting as a conduit to draw people into the building. At the end of its route, it broadens into a staff canteen, which is conceived as the major social and working space. The street is framed on the north side by a double-height wedge of offices and on the south side by a long, single-storey volume of ancillary accommodation. The ground floor houses film production activities, with more private, cellular offices above, reached by a gallery overlooking the street. Brick and concrete boxes housing film equipment protrude into the street, changing the scale and animating its edges.

As far as possible, the building exploits both natural light and ventilation. Sun shading on the north side is provided by the overhanging roof and first floor. Cross ventilation is achieved by ensuring that one side of every room is open to the internal street spine. Air is drawn through the rooms into the street, where warm air is evacuated by two large mechanical fans placed at each end of it. The legibility of detailing and use of materials continues Noero's concern with developing a modern, African functionalism, appropriate to climate, place and resources.